Sunny side of the street

Every time my dog and I leave the house for a walk, find the sky sprinkling lightly on us, and we decide the pour is light enough to continue, my dog immediately leads me to the other side of the street, something he never does otherwise, as if thinking that it won't rain there. (Once or twice, believe it or not, he's been correct.)

It's a perfect metaphor, or an outright example of the follies of human (and canine) thinking about things we cannot affect. If only we had elected the other guy (just coincidentally, of course, from "my" political party.) If only the U.N. had passed such and such resolution. If only everybody on the highway (except for me, I can't!) took public transportation. If only guns were banned. Like in Switzerland. No, wait, never mind. If only they put up a speed limit sign on my street.

Well, they did put up a 25MPH speed limit sign in front of my neighbour's house. The neighbour protested to the city hall and they moved it, so it now stands between my house and the house of the neighbour on the other side. As if I had to say it, having the sign there has had no effect whatsoever on the cars speeding through my residential street.

I lost a friend once, a firm believer in the goodness of government action, when I mocked the "No Drug Dealing Zone" sign we passed driving through a neighbourhood, as the billboard advertising where illegal substances can be obtained, at all hours of day and night. That was the beginning of the end of our friendship.

There is a poster hanging in the common area of my office building advertising an event called 'Walk to Cure Diabetes'. That's right, you walk to cure diabetes. (It doesn't say if it's your own diabetes or the disease of diabetes in general for all humanity.) Well, I walk more every day than anyone I know in this car cursed culture, and so far it hasn't helped to cure my children's colds much less some still incurable diseases.

But that's just me. You go ahead, don't let me stop you from meditating for peace. The earth needs it (peace, not meditation.) Maybe it is sunny on the other side of the street, after all. If only we had elected the other guy, I wouldn't be in such a pickle now!